Depopulation

This work documents the effect of BSE on the lives of an Irish farming family. It portrays their sense of loss by chronicling the immediate aftermath of the disease.

Its aim is to give voice to one family’s experience by highlighting the circumstances surrounding the Irish Department of Agriculture’s now debunked policy of total herd depopulation. By concentrating solely on their situation the work becomes emblematic of the struggle of other victims of the BSE phenomenon. This focus is also appropriate in light of attempts of governmental agencies and vested interest groups to dampen down the whole issue of BSE due to its adverse effects on public confidence regarding the beef consumption. As a by-product of these concerns the distress and suffering of those affected by such an outbreak go virtually unnoticed. It is this silence that this work wishes to address. Additionally, due to the increasing pressures of the globalize market and its effect on methods of food production, coupled with the current apprehension regarding transmissible diseases such as foot and mouth and more recently avian influenza, a study that concentrates on the human tragedy of BSE seems an apt and worthy exercise.

The work is positioned within the genre of contemporary documentary photography. It refers to a passed occurrence by focusing on the aftermath as opposed to the actually moment of the event. It documents a specific moment in history by concentrating on images that emphasizes absence and eludes to the trace of something past. Depopulation centres on a deserted farmyard devoid of life. It employs a banal matter of factness through its use of straight formal type imagery and encourages the viewer to engage in a forensic type observation. The emphasis of the work is on a methodical view of landscape.